Literary Region Nominations • November 2013

[HomeInMyShoes]

My mistake on that one. I couldn't read the map and it looked like the islands that were outlined were part of their own region and not with Australia, New Zealand and others. Apologies for the uproar on my misinterpretation.

If anyone has titles for the region outside of Australia and New Zealand. I want to hear them. I've found Philippines, but not Papau New Guinea.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I'd like to nominate In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar. If someone could add alonk for me as I'm on a phone for a while here that would be appreciated.

[issybird]

I'd like to nominate Leo Africanus by Amin Maalouf, a Lebanese-born writer who moved to France in his mid-twenties and writes in French although his first language is Arabic.

Leo Africanus is the

imaginary autobiography of the famous geographer, adventurer, and scholar Hasan al-Wazzan, who was born in Granada in 1488. His family fled the Inquisition and took him to the city of Fez, in North Africa. Hasan became an itinerant merchant, and made many journeys to the East, journeys rich in adventure and observation. He was captured by a Sicilian pirate and taken back to Rome as a gift to Pope Leo X, who baptized him Johannes Leo. While in Rome, he wrote the first trilingual dictionary (Latin, Arabic and Hebrew), as well as his celebrated Description of Africa, for which he is still remembered as Leo Africanus. (Wikipedia)

NY Times Book Review:

Leo Africanus is a beautiful book of tales about people who are forced to accept choices made for them by someone else...It relates, poetically at times and often imaginatively, the story of those who did not make it to the New World.

[sun surfer]

Heh, I was just coming here to nominate Leo Africanus and looks like I was beat to it, so of course I will second it. The others look very interesting as well, but I'm going to mull over them for now.

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

My mistake on that one. I couldn't read the map and it looked like the islands that were outlined were part of their own region and not with Australia, New Zealand and others. Apologies for the uproar on my misinterpretation...

No worries and I can see how you thought that - the outlines do make it appear that the smaller islands might be their own region, especially since the islands are so small that the colour can only barely be seen in a few of them. That's just how the map-making tool I used works - the map was already made with those outlines. On reflection now, one would think though that if the point of the tool were to colour-code countries and it went to the trouble of already broadly outlining those island countries that it would've done something like make the outlines in the selected colour.

[Billi]

I support

- Leo Africanus
- The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
- A Tale of Love and Darkness

[sun surfer]

I'll third The Rubaiyat as well.

I will support Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz. I also support The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. I've never read it but have always wanted to. Ever since first seeing the skit on the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show about when Rocky & Bullwinkle buy a model ship made out of rubies with O-Mar Khay-yam written on it. "Well someone has to say it." This would be an opportunity to finally do so.

[fantasyfan]

I'll fourth Leo Africanus by Amin Maalouf.

[fantasyfan]

I'll fourth A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz.

[sun surfer]

I'm going to nominate Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami. Lalami was born and raised in Morocco and now lives in the United States and writes in English. She became the first Moroccan author to publish a book of fiction written in English with a major commercial press in the United States.

From Amazon:

Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, Laila Lalami's poetic debut, begins with the illegal journey of four Moroccans across the Strait of Gibraltar. Moments away from the shores of Spain, the boat capsizes and the passengers are forced to swim for their lives, and their freedom. What follows is an exploration of the pasts that led to this passage, and the futures that emerge from this voyage.

Less a novel than a series of biographical sketches, the book seems at times like a tease; Lalami does such a beautiful job creating her characters that readers will undoubtedly be left wanting more. Still, each portrait gives us a chance to not only engage with the character, but to gain an understanding of the religious, socio-economic, and emotional circumstances that compel each person to leave Morocco. Faten, a student who dons the hijab, is forced to flee when her religious beliefs start threatening the lives of influential educators. Murad, a serious, educated young man chances the crossing in search of a better life, where he doesn't have to hustle tourists to make a living. In each scene, Lalami bring Moroccan culture to life, from the tree-lined suburbs of Rabat to the Douar Lhajja slum, "where couscous pots were used as satellite dishes."

With Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, Lalami creates a world that is both modern and traditional, hopeful and desperate, mournful and joyous.

[fantasyfan]

I'll second Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami for my last nomination.

[caleb72]

I just realised the novel I'm reading at the moment is from a Zimbabwean author. How very adventurous of me.

[issybird]

Fourth Palace Walk.

[paola]

Nominate Leila Aboulela Lyrics Alley, couponable on Kobo. Originally written in English, though the writer was born in Egypt and raised in Sudan.

Blurb from Goodreads

Lyrics Alley is the evocative story of an affluent Sudanese family shaken by the shifting powers in their country and the near-tragedy that threatens the legacy they've built for decades.

Their fortune threatened by shifting powers in Sudan and their heir's debilitating accident, a powerful family under the leadership of Mahmoud Bey is torn between the traditional and modern values of Mahmoud's two wives and his son's efforts to break with cultural limits.

I will also second In the country of men, and add the link to Hisham Matar, the author and here is what Goodreads says about the book:

Libya, 1979. Nine-year-old Suleiman’s days are circumscribed by the narrow rituals of childhood: outings to the ruins surrounding Tripoli, games with friends played under the burning sun, exotic gifts from his father’s constant business trips abroad. But his nights have come to revolve around his mother’s increasingly disturbing bedside stories full of old family bitterness. And then one day Suleiman sees his father across the square of a busy marketplace, his face wrapped in a pair of dark sunglasses. Wasn’t he supposed to be away on business yet again? Why is he going into that strange building with the green shutters? Why did he lie?

Suleiman is soon caught up in a world he cannot hope to understand—where the sound of the telephone ringing becomes a portent of grave danger; where his mother frantically burns his father’s cherished books; where a stranger full of sinister questions sits outside in a parked car all day; where his best friend’s father can disappear overnight, next to be seen publicly interrogated on state television.

In the Country of Men is a stunning depiction of a child confronted with the private fallout of a public nightmare. But above all, it is a debut of rare insight and literary grace.

pity, not Kobo couponable.

Now my last nomination to go...

[Bookworm_Girl]

I missed the vote but am excited about the region that was nominated.

I will third In the Country of Men.